Ex-Lululemon CEO on why she left the company

Former Lululemon LULU CEO Christine Day talked openly for the first time about why she left the apparel retailer at Fortune Most Powerful Women Next Gen conference on Wednesday.

She said at the end of her time at the company, her vision didn’t match founder Chip Wilson’s. “You have to take control of your own life and say, ‘This isn’t working for me.’” She added that Wilson loved disruption and clash: “That wasn’t who I was and that wasn’t going to work for me.”

Day also said that the company’s see-through yoga pants fiasco never felt like the big failure of her career, noting that you have to be willing to “manage through bad times as well as good times.”

Fortune previously detailed Day’s departure from the Vancouver-based company, but her onstage comments at the conference were the first time she addressed her culture clash with Chip Wilson directly.

Day planned to take time off after leaving Lululemon but soon after joined Luvo, a healthy food company that’s trying to put nutrition back in frozen foods. “I met with the founder, and I was captured by the mission,” she said. She noted that about 73% of healthcare dollars are spent on food-caused disease, and she saw an opportunity or marketplace disruption.

Day has made a career of working for disruptive consumer-facing companies. She started at Starbucks SBUX when it was a $400,000 in revenue operation and left 20 years later when it was $8 billion. She said she loves to create the business model for new concepts at companies that are also purpose driven. “If you wait for the evidence, you’re not the first mover,” she said.

Day left Starbucks under less fraught backdrop than her departure for Lululemon. She had worked for the company for two decades and needed to know “what was Starbucks and what was me. I needed to know what I was capable of.”

The premium required to buy out the $6.3 billion company would be a major roadblock to taking the company private, according to industry insiders. But Wilson’s efforts show he is grasping for control over how the yoga-gear company is run.

Wilson stepped down as CEO in 2005, and then bowed out as chairman in May. He has since been critical of Lululemon’s strategic direction and voted recently against the election of its new chairman and another director.

Wilson’s beef with the board has been ongoing, and nearly six months ago Lululemon talked with bankers about what its options are if Wilson were to sell his 28% stake, people familiar with the matter told the Journal.

Lululemon directors re-elected despite founder’s attack

Two Lululemon Athletica directors who angered founder and top shareholder Chip Wilson were re-elected to the retailer’s board on Wednesday, a company spokesperson said. A third director, CEO Laurent Potdevin, who took the helm in January, was also re-elected.

Earlier in the day, Wilson said in a statement that he had voted his 27% of shares against the re-election of Chairman Michael Casey, a special advisor to Starbucks, SBUX and fellow board member RoAnn Costin, president of Boston-based private-equity firm Wilderness Point Investments. (Lululemon’s other directors will face a vote next year and in 2016.)

Wilson called for a shakeup of Lululemon’s board, saying it was “heavily weighted towards short-term results at the expense of product, culture and brand and longer-term corporate goals.” The company later disputed that assertion in a press release of its own.

The founder’s call for a boardroom shakeup comes as Lululemon, a maker of yoga clothing, struggles to regain its footing from a debacle in March 2013 when it was forced to recall some of its popular pants after customers complained about the material being so thin that it was see-through. That issue ultimately led former CEO Christine Day to step down.

Meanwhile, Wilson, who founded the company in 1998 and previously served as CEO from 1998 to 2005, generated negative press late last year when he said the company’s pants weren’t appropriate for all body types. Soon after making those comments, Wilson announced he would step down from the chairman post, but would remain a board member.

Lululemom has long been a Wall Street favorite thanks to its fast growth, but that has cooled. Analysts expect it to report a 1.5% decline in comparable sales, according to Consensus Matrix, when it reports quarterly results Thursday morning. Lululemon LULU stock is 43% off a 52-week high.

Warrior pose? Lululemon founder wants board shakeup

Lululemon Athletica LULU founder Chip Wilson has called for a shakeup of the yoga gear maker’s board, disclosing he has voted against the reelection of two board members as he laments a board that has focused too much on short-term results.

Wilson, the largest shareholder of Lululemon with ownership of nearly 28% of the company’s stock, has voted against the re-election of Chairman Michael Casey and fellow board member RoAnn Costin, president of Boston-based private-equity firm Wilderness Point Investments. Both are classified by Lululemon’s nomination committee as “Class I directors,” meaning they are “most suited for membership of our board of directors at this time.”

Wilson, however, appears to disagree.

“I have found a palpable imbalance in Board representation, which is heavily weighted towards short-term results at the expense of product, culture and brand and longer-term corporate goals,” Wilson said in a prepared statement. “I believe this is impacting the company’s prospects.”

Lululemon issued a statement Wednesday responding to Wilson, saying that “contrary to Mr. Wilson’s assertions, Lululemon’s Board members are aligned with the company’s core values and possess the necessary expertise to successfully lead Lululemon forward.”

The retailer is poised to hold its annual meeting later Wednesday. The company’s fiscal first-quarter results are due on Thursday.

The founder’s call for a boardroom shakeup comes as the athletic-wear retailer has aimed to move forward from a debacle in March 2013 when it was forced to pull some of its popular pants after a mistake by a supplier left the pants somewhat see-through. That issue led former Chief Executive Christine Day to step down from that role, a decision that followed a high-profile recall of the pants.

Meanwhile, Wilson, who founded the company in 1998 and previously served as CEO from 1998 to 2005, generated negative press late last year when he said the company’s pants don’t work for all body types. Soon after those comments were made, Wilson announced he would step down from the chairman post, but would remain at the company as a board member.

A Wilson representative said he declined to comment beyond his prepared statement. A Lululemon representative also wasn’t available to comment.

Lululemon’s shares have shed about 24% of their value so far in 2014, badly missing the broader market’s gain. The company kicked off the year by projecting fourth-quarter results that missed the company’s earlier estimates. And while fourth-quarter sales climbed from a year ago, gross margins and same-store sales — two key metrics for retailers — weakened.